East London: huge new 35-storey tower near Canary Wharf to wipe out car park and football pitches

Councillors sitting on Tower Hamlets’ strategic development committee approved the demolition of 1 Selsdon Way to provide 307 new homes – of which 35per cent aim to be ‘affordable’ housing. The site is on the Isle of Dogs, near Asda, and just a stone’s throw from Canary Wharf.

The site, which also includes office space, is temporarily being used by a school as extra accommodation until August 2025 – the school has reportedly found alternative accommodation on Selsdon Way. The applicant, Ridgeback Group, said the quality of the proposed accommodation was ‘very high for everyone’, and said all of the homes meet or exceed space levels, while the ground floor will feature a leisure space.

During the public consultation stage, the plans received 97 letters in objection and three supporting letters. Those who objected to the plans raised concerns over the loss of the football pitches, which are currently used by Canary Wharf College students on an interim basis.

They also said the design of the proposed building was ‘inappropriate’, adding it would have an impact on the character of the area. Those in support of the plans said it would increase housing supply in the area and would help create jobs. The committee, sitting on Wednesday (January 15), also heard from Andrew Wood, who asked that the plans be deferred over safety concerns relating to secondary school kids who are next door to the site.

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Mr Wood said: “I’m asking you tonight to defer a decision for this application because the submitted planning documents and the council’s written report do not make clear how the almost 500 secondary school pupils next door to this site will be kept safe during the demolition and construction [of the] building that they study in.

“Canary Wharf College [Crossharbour] is a state secondary school… as I said there’s around 500 pupils, [the school] occupies the whole south side of the site, and the government spent £30million buying the three former offices for a school.”

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He went on to say: “But this secondary school is meant to move to Westferry Printworks which you considered last August, but that could be many years after the demolition starts next door – the pupils may face years of disruption while they wait for the [Westferry] Printworks school to be finished.

“The report doesn’t say anything about how students will be kept safe during demolition and construction, will work be allowed to happen during school hours? During exams?”

On the football pitches, Mr Wood said they were being used by the wider community until a year ago as the school was allowing access. A planning officer said the pitches weren’t accessible by stairs and weren’t being used commercially, adding that alternative community provision is being re-provided on site.

In response, Ridgeback’s development director, Chris Allen, said they had formed a close relationship with the school and during construction, there will be remote monitoring for noise, dust and vibration. A planning officer said Ridgeback will need to provide a dust management plan, a construction environmental plan and a management plan prior to any work starting on site. Mr Allen said: “For a number of years, we have been working to bring forward this complex but important regeneration site.

“The site is currently a 1980s car park and a vacant office building that attracts lots of dangerous and antisocial behaviour, including drug use. Our proposals seek to transform this into an exemplar tall building that delivers 307 much-needed new homes on an allocated housing site in the Local Plan.”

When it came to the vote, all of the councillors sitting on the committee voted in favour of granting planning permission. The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands the development will take around three years to build.